PSN outage due to hackers, admits Sony

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) has confirmed that it was forced to pull the plug on PlayStation Network this week as a result of an “external intrusion” – in other words, hackers are indeed to blame for the service’s on-going outage these past few days.

Writing in a message on the U.S. PlayStation Blog, SCEA communications boss Patrick Seybold asserted that the electronics giant is doing all it can to remedy the situation, and promised to keep punters in the loop on future developments.

“An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services,” wrote Seybold.

“In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th.”

“Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience.”

“We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.”

Seybold’s message is the first update we've heard from Sony on the matter since Thursday, when the company was forced to admit that its online service may be down for “days.”

Speculation began to spread like wildfire that the notorious hackers Anonymous were to blame for PSN’s downtime, after the group had previously targeted Sony in relation to legal action the platform holder had taken against other hackers.

While conceding that some its members could have acted on their own accord, however, Anonymous said in a press release yesterday that the group was not responsible for the attacks on PSN, insisting the whole affair is the result of an "internal problem."